2020-2021 Funding Opportunity Announcement
Award Information
Award Name: Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
Federal Award Identification Number: T42 OH008421
Award Year: July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021
Federal Awarding Agencies: Department of Health and Human Services; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Sub-Award Flow-Through Requirements
Applicable Regulations: 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 75, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for HHS Awards
45 CFR Part 75 supersedes regulations at 45 CFR Part 74 and Part 92
Eligible Applicants
The Pilot Projects program aims to provide a support mechanism for research projects initiated by personnel at any institution located within Public Health Region 6 (PHR 6) (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas), including those with Training Program Grants. Funds are available for three categories of awards including:
- Research Trainee Awards: Graduate doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows in an occupational health and safety-related discipline.
- Junior Investigator Awards: New investigators with research interests in the general area of occupational health and safety. Junior investigators are defined as faculty who have not served as PI on any Public Health Service (PHS)-supported research grants other than a R03, R15, R21, K01, K08, or K12.
- New Researcher Awards: Researchers or Faculty in areas other than occupational health research who wish to apply their expertise to an occupational safety and health issue.
- Previous Pilot Project Awardees are not eligible to reapply with the exception of previous Research Trainee Awardees who could reapply as Junior Investigators. To be eligible to re-apply in this category, potential applicants must have evidence of at least one outcome (e.g., publication, grant proposal or award) resulting from the prior award as Research Trainee.
Availability/Use of Funds
Approximately $50,000 is available in the upcoming 2020-2021 fiscal year, ending on June 30, 2021, to fund up to 5 short-term, high impact research projects. The maximum total cost amount to a single project will be $10,000 for both Research Trainee and Junior Investigators awards. New Researcher may apply for a maximum of $20,000. Awards are made competitively and on a one-time basis for a maximum of one year (with funding to end on 6/30/2021) without possibility of renewal. Funding is contingent upon NIOSH’s notice of renewal award to the SWCOEH for the corresponding fiscal year.
Only one application per applicant is allowed. Awards will be made on a one-time basis with an end date of June 30, 2021
Use
Funding is designed to directly support the implementation of the research plan. Salary support for the investigator is discouraged and administrative staff support will not be allowed. Course costs (i.e., tuition and fees) are not an allowable expense. Additionally, the budgeting of computers into the proposals is not an allowable expense unless it is an essential need to conduct the research (e.g., a laptop to collect data during the field work; but not simply data entry).
All applicants are encouraged to request that their institutions waive indirect cost requirements. Should indirect cost requirements not be waived, the program will only support up to 8% of the direct costs. Proof of IDC Waiver application to the applicant organization must be submitted with the proposal packet. Whether IDC is waived or not by the applicant organization, a letter from the applicant organization stating such must also be submitted.
Programmatic Interest
Submitted projects must be relevant to the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) of NIOSH (see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs). Submitted applications for the Junior Investigator and Research Trainee award categories should originate from areas within the traditional occupational health and safety-related disciplines including occupational medicine, occupational health nursing, industrial hygiene, occupational safety, ergonomics, toxicology, occupational epidemiology and Total Worker Health. Applications for the New Researcher award category should originate from investigators in areas other than those listed above. Projects not addressing NORA goals and objectives will be determined non-responsive, and will not be reviewed further.
Proposals for all should emphasize basic or applied research that brings especially innovative perspectives or paradigms, ideas, and/or approaches to occupational health research. All applications should address occupational health and safety needs in Region PHR 6, foster the research career of the Principal Investigator, and promote research capacity-building in the Region. In addition, the proposal should include a brief statement describing the investigator s plan for dissemination of project results in the peer-reviewed literature and future applications for extramural funding.